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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;illini420, post: 928111, member: 19423&quot;]I&#039;m strongly against it and would advise you not to start cracking...&nbsp; here&#039;s a thread I wrote regarding that subject that you may find useful:</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.cointalk.com/t70588/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/t70588/">http://www.cointalk.com/t70588/</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Before cracking a single slab please think about the long term... </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>What is your ultimate goal?&nbsp; Surely you&#039;re not just going to build a set of common dates, right?&nbsp; Eventually, you&#039;ll want to save up and add some of the semi-key dates and eventually the key dates to your collection.&nbsp; Sure, cracking a $20-$50 coin is easy, but will you feel the same way about cracking out a $250-$500 semi-key date??? How about the 1909-S VDB that&#039;s worth a couple thousand dollars????&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Do you think the first coin you buy of a given date will be the one that stays in your collection forever???&nbsp; I doubt it.&nbsp; Most collectors buy the best they can afford today.&nbsp; So today you might want to buy an MS64RD example of a date, crack it and put it in your album.&nbsp; But in a few years you want to get an MS65RD or even an MS66RD.&nbsp; At that time you&#039;ll have a real hard time selling your previous MS64RD as that grade w/o getting it reslabbed (which costs money and there is a risk it may not get the same grade).</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Are you ok with the albums toning the coins?? If you&#039;re buying MS63-65 cents I&#039;m assuming some of them will be Red examples.&nbsp; If you put those in an album, most albums will tone red copper over time and will speed the transition towards red-brown and brown color (which devalues the coins, sometimes significantly).</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Most people don&#039;t like to think about it, but what if something happens to you?&nbsp; What do you think will be easier for your family to sell and what do you think will get your family members more money upon sale: an album with raw and ungraded examples or a box with professionally certified examples???</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Finally, if you&#039;re set at wanting to do an album, that&#039;s cool... I too have a Lincoln Dansco with a ton of bright red wheat cents (now turning red-brown).&nbsp; But I can promise you the set you build will cost you multiples extra by buying slabbed examples of common dates and then cracking them out.&nbsp; For example, I can buy a full roll of 50 1958 Lincolns that&#039;ll grade 63-65 Red or Red/Brown for less than the price it would cost you to buy a single slabbed MS65 example.&nbsp; Many of the common dates can be purchased for a couple of dollars each in gem red condition.&nbsp; You just can&#039;t buy slabs that cheap.&nbsp; I understand that you want to buy slabs for the security in knowing you have original coins and knowing they meet a certain grade, but you&#039;d be far better off financially (and will likely end up with better coins) to find a dealer (either local or online) who you can deal with and trust will be giving you nice coins at relatively fair prices.&nbsp;&nbsp; I&#039;m sure some of us on the forum could provide some recommenations to you depending on exactly what you&#039;re looking for.&nbsp; You might even find some good seller on eBay too, but that may take a little trial and error.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Good luck.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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